Natural Blues

Posted on 06 Jan 2016 @ 9:16pm by Master Chief Petty Officer Mila Rasputin

687 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: Rude Awakening
Location: Deck 13 Personal Quarters
Timeline: MD 9 || 0900 Hours

Mila finished unpacking the last of her meager belongings and hung the last of her duty uniforms before she felt a tug at her pant leg. She looked down and smiled as she saw her pet Capuchin, Chow, looking up at her with a smile. She knew what he wanted, but couldn't resist leaning down to give his right jaw a scritch which earned her a happy coo from the tiny simian. She stood up and went to the replicator to order two servings of strawberry yogurt and a bowl of pistachio nuts.

She set one of the yogurts and the bowl of nuts down for Chow who happily began to dip the nuts in the yogurt while hooting happily. "Ah, you have the good life, Chow. A bowl of nuts and yogurt keeps you happy," she said with a slight Russian accent. She knew her father would frown if he heard how little she had kept of it, but when you spent years in space speaking other languages, your native one tended to fade away. "Speak more Russian!" he would tell her. "Let others know the proud history of our people!"

"Sure, Papa," she said to the air. "I'll let them know that I am a descendant of Grigori Rasputin, the Mad Monk." She also knew his responses to that, but she brushed them aside. Few people cared about the history of her people and fewer knew about Rasputin. "I'll make my own history."

Mila shed her clothes after she ate her yogurt and put the bowl and spoon back on the replicator tray and went to take a sonic shower. She would have preferred the real thing, but when in space, do as the spacers do. Her mind turned to the current conflict with the Consortium and she felt as if she were adrift. Since when did loyalty become so big an issue and how did they, whoever they are, manage to infiltrate so deeply into the Federation? Did the Federation learn nothing after the Dominion War and the infiltration of the Founders at the highest levels of Starfleet Command? Was it a inside plot led by a formerly loyal member of Starfleet or was it an external plot that had managed to get its hooks into various officers?

"All I know is that I am loyal to Starfleet and if that gets me branded a traitor, then I'm a traitor," she told Chow as she got out of the shower and dressed in a comfortable white cardigan sweater, grey pants and soft slippers. "Computer, play Kalinka-Malinka, mid volume please," she requested as she settled down to listen to the Russian folk song that had been around for centuries and let the memories of home surface in her mind.

"May our next assignment take us back to the Alpha Quadrant, Chow," Mila told the diminutive companion who jumped on the arm of her chair and began to groom himself. For Chow's part, he was home wherever she was and was happy with that and his yogurt, pistachios and some grapes for diversity. She gave him a pet and sighed. "I know. You could care less where we go. Just remember: Do not steal PADDs from the Captain this time. I don't need a mark like that on my record or for you to get banned."

As the song finished, she was surprised to feel moisture on her cheeks. "There you go crying again, Mila Anastasiya," she chided herself in Russian. "What would Papa say?" She wiped her cheeks and responded in a deeper voice with a stern look on her face. "It means you should come home, Kotyonok," she said, smiling at the nickname of "Kitten" that her father had given her when she was little.

Still, she was sad and decided to close her eyes for a while and just hoped that when she was needed, it wouldn't be to report more bad news from the Captain to the various Chiefs on the ship. A short time later, she drifted off with Chow curled up in her lap while life went on without her.

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